Immigrants help power America's economy. Will the election value or imperil them?
Immigrants, as well as those who work closely with them, say both sides’ efforts to crack down on the border have clouded the larger immigration issue in ways often too nuanced to break down cleanly along ideological lines
BAKER, Nev. — Few things say America like Janille and Tom Baker's ranch, with its grazing cattle, scrub brush-dotted desert and snow-capped mountains.
If only they could get American citizens to work on it.
The ranch in remote eastern Nevada produces around 10,000 tons of hay annually, and combines cowboy culture with a dash of Manifest Destiny. Rabbits, gophers and the occasional badger always outnumber humans and the nighttime sky is dark enough to count the stars.
But the Bakers' business couldn't survive without an agricultural guest worker program that brings in Mexican immigrants for about nine months a year to help harvest crops in fields where temperatures frequently exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius).
“When people complain that foreign workers are taking their jobs, I roll my eyes,” said Janille Baker, who manages the ranch's accounting. “In any industry, everybody’s trying to find help. So this anti-immigration stance doesn’t really make sense to me. If everyone needs workers, how are you planning to fill those jobs?” The ranch follows federal rules that require advertising available positions and making them available first to U.S. citizens. But in the last six years, only two Americans called to inquire about jobs. A third trekked out in person, but left after seeing what the work entailed.
Immigration has become a source of fright and frustration for voters in this presidential election — with possible outcomes that could take the United States down two dramatically different
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